Our Story

The beginning

Our history dates back to 31 December 1828, when the company called "Società Reale d'Assicurazione Generale e Mutua Contro gl'Incendj" was founded in Turin, then capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Our first steps

In 1829 King Carlo Felice granted the company a Royal Licence and then subscribed policy no. 1 to insure Palazzo Chiablese, his residence in Turin. The company began its operations, first in the fire insurance business and then, in 1844, expanding to include hail insurance cover.

Our offices

As the Kingdom of Sardinia expanded and theunification of Italy , was about to become a reality, Reale started to do business in the rest of the country, setting up a network of agencies: in 1859 it opened a branch office in Milan, and this was followed shortly afterwards by several more agencies in northern Italy.

Growth

With the unification of Italy, Reale started to look farther afield, branching out towards the regions of north-eastern and central Italy. In 1867, agencies were inaugurated in Venice, Vicenza and Rovigo in the Veneto region, which had only recently been regained from Austria. The Rome agency opened in 1870, immediately after the capture of Rome when the Papal States became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

Expansion in the South

In 1889, Reale continued its expansion in the regions of southern Italy, starting with the agency in Naples. By this time its sales network consisted of 60 agencies.

Consolidation

The years around the turn of the century were a period of consolidation. The number of Members steadily increased and by 1919 had risen to 400.000, doubling in thirty years.

Social responsibility

At the same time, Reale also began to play a more important role within the community: in the midst of the First World War it allocated significant amounts to relief funds and to help soldiers, their families, the wounded and prisoners.

Post-war recovery and the economic boom

After the end of the War, as the Italian economy gradually recovered, Reale Mutua further expanded its business activities: by the 1960s it started to have all the characteristics of a large insurance firm, with associated companies also operating in foreign markets. In 1966 the companies companies Italiana Incendio e Rischi Diversi , Rischi Diversi and Italiana Vita joined the Reale Mutua Group, which entered the Spanish market in 1988..

One million customers

By the early 1990s Reale Mutua had one million Member-Policyholders, and by 1991 it had passed the milestone of total premiums for ITL 1,000 billion. Blue Assistance the Group's assistance services company, was established in 1993.

Continuing expansion

In 2000 Universo Assicurazioni, Universo Vita, La Piemontese Assicurazioni and La Piemontese Vita joined the Reale Mutua Group , and Banca Reale , was established. In 2002 Reale Mutua transferred all of its property assets to Reale Immobili,the Group's real estate company. Between 2002. And 2005 it continued to acquire companies in Spain (Imperio Vida y Diversos in 2002 and Aegon Seguros Generales in 2005), and Reale Vida y Pensiones .was founded in 2010. In 2012 Reale Mutua was the first Italian insurance company to obtain certification to UNI EN ISO 14001 for its environmental management system. In 2013 Reale Mutua extended and renewed its History Museum, which first opened to the public in 2007. Reale Mutua’s Code of Ethics, drawn up in 2001, was revised and extended to include the whole Group. On 30 May 2014 Italiana Assicurazioni celebrated its 125th anniversary.

In 2015 the Reale Mutua Group changed its name to Reale Group.

Reale Seguros Chile and Uniqa Assicurazioni

In November 2016, in Santiago del Chile, Reale Chile Seguros Generales S.A. was oficially established. Recognising the opportunities offered by economic and social stability in Chile, Reale Group thus made its début on a market in Latin America. The new Company is expected to break even within five years. The aim is for premiums to reach € 240 million by the end of the tenth year, to have a workforce of around 340 employees and to rank among the top five players in the Chilean Non-life insurance sector.

In December 2017 another important agreement was signed with the Austrian Uniqa Group for the acquisition of its Italian insurance companies. The agreement refers to the purchase of 99.7% of the share capital of Uniqa Assicurazioni S.p.A., an Italian company that mainly sells Motor, non-Motor and Health insurance products, and of its subsidiaries, Uniqa Previdenza S.p.A., which provides traditional and index/unit‐linked Life products, and Uniqa Life S.p.A., a company established within the framework of a bancassurance partnership, for a total price of € 295 million.

Today

In 190 years RM has evolved in its history, but in one thing has never changed: the scrupulous attention it pays to its Members,whose number has grown to to more than one million four hundred thousand..

The railways

The industrial revolution and the mechanisation of production processes brought about radical changes in Europe and profound transformations in society in the first half of the 19th century The factories needed workers and people left their rural communities to move to the towns and cities. Steam engines became more widespread and the first Italian railway lines were built.

The railways

In 1839 the Naples-Portici : railway line was inaugurated: two locomotives pulled ten carriages with 258 passengers. This was followed shortly afterwards by the Milan-Monza railway line, which was 13 kilometres long: this was the first section of the line that would eventually link Milan and Venice. Work on the Turin-Genoa and Turin-Milan railway lines also got underway. By 1859 Italy already had 1,800 kilometres of railway lines, 800 of which were in Piedmont.

End-of-century fever

The last decades of the century were a time of widespread euphoria and dynamic social transformation, also linked to the novelties brought about by modernity. The road network was developed and modern means of transport became available: in 1870 there were already 27,217 km of state highways and 96,926 km of municipal roads in Italy..

Motor cars, motorcycles and aeroplanes

In 1884 Enrico Bernardi built the first Italian petrol-fuelled motor car. A short time afterwards the two Werner brothers, , who had emigrated from Russia to live in Paris, mounted an engine on a two-wheeled vehicle: this was the first motorcycle.
Only a few years later, Orville Wright , flew for 12 seconds over a distance of 37 metres, in the first plane with an engine.

Cinematography

The first motion picture screening took place in a basement in Paris, on 28 December 1895Tickets for the show cost 1 franc and it was an immediate success. there were 35 people in the audience on the first day and more than 2000 three weeks later. The first cinema in Italy opened in 1896 in Turin.

The radio

It was also around this time that the radio was invented: thanks to the genius of 1894 in just a few years later 33 million Italians were able to herald in the new century to the sound of music.

TV

The first Italian television programme was broadcast on 3 January 1954 although people had to go to a bar to watch it, or to the home of someone lucky enough to own a TV set. There was an immediate boom in sales: about 170,000 that year, 2 million in 1958 and more than 10 million in 1970 .

Present and future

The world is moving at an increasingly fast pace: 1958 there were about 1 million cars ,on the roads, in 1970 there were 11 million. On 16 July 1969 . people from around the world held their breath as they watched the launching of Apollo 11 from the Cape Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The mission was accomplished, man walked on the Moon. From then on there has been an unstoppable drive of technological progress and a continuous succession of amazing discoveries. Not least Internet, which allows us to share information and knowledge with people all over the world in just a few seconds.